HMS Beagle was built as a small two-masted brig sloop of the 10-gun Cherokee class. Although 107 of this class were built, 26 were lost at sea, which is why they were given the name coffin brigs. Unfortunately, the same thing happened to the Beagle in a different way.
HMS Beagle off the GalƔpagos by John Chancellor (x)
When the Beagle was finally launched in 1820, she was initially not used and was kept in reserve without masts and rigging (in ordinary). It was not until five years later that she was transferred to the Hydrographic Office to serve as a survey ship. Her job there was to sail to various places in the world and make surveys for accurate charts. She was even converted to a bark, which meant that she now had three masts, the 10 guns were reduced to six and extra cabins and a forecastle were added.
In 1826 the Beagle set sail for the first time. Under the command of Captain Pringle Stokes (1793- 1828) she was to sail from Patagonia to Tierra del Fuego to make accurate and up-to-date surveys, as new maps of the South American coast were needed for trading there. She was accompanied by HMS Adventure under the overall command of Captain Phillip Parker King. The two ships left Montevideo on 19 November 1826 and explored the coasts of southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego around the Strait of Magellan until April 1827, before returning to Rio Janeiro in June 1827. Stokes entered the RĆo Santa Cruz and charted Isla PavĆ³n, which was about 54 kilometres from the mouth of the river. Pringle Stokes described the Tierra del Fuego people he first encountered in 1827 very objectively, which was unusual for a European of his time. He attributed their primitive state to the rigours of the climate. In December of the same year, the two ships sailed south again, this time accompanied by a schooner named Adelaide, and docked at Port Famine (Puerto del Hambre) in January 1828. From there, Stokes was tasked with āsurveying the western coasts between the Straits of Magalhaens and the 47th parallel south, or as much of these dangerous and exposed shores as he could examineā. He was to return to Port Famine by the end of July.
Scrimshawed whale tooth decorated on one face with H M Beagle in rough seas off a mountainous shoreline, lettered Working H M Sloop BEAGLE up the River Santa Cruz 1834 and signed J A Bute, the reverse with a scene of the Beagle beached on shore lettered H M Sloop Beagle laid on shore to repair her Forefoot and again signed J Ā A Bute 1835 (x)
Conditions were extremely difficult. The narrow, rocky channels were unexplored. There were raging tides, storms and blizzards, and overcast skies or fog that made astronomical observations impossible. This further aggravated Stokes, who had been mentally distressed for a long time, and caused him to fall into a severe depression. Ā In June 1828, he wrote in his diary:
Nothing could be more desolate than the scene around us. The high, bare and barren heights surrounding the inhospitable shores of this bay were themselves covered low down with dense clouds, on which the violent squalls that beset us beat without effecting any changeā¦. All around us, and some of them were not more than two-thirds of a cableās length away, were rocky coves lashed by a tremendous surf; and as if to complete the desolation and utter desolation of the scene, even the birds seemed to avoid their surroundings. The weather was such that. āthe soul of man dies within him.ā
When the ship returned to Port Famine on 27 July 1828, Stokes had not left his cabin for four weeks. Lieutenant William Skyring, the assistant surveyor, had taken command. On 1 August 1828 he attempted to shoot himself, but the bullet lodged in his skull and did not kill him immediately. Conscious and lucid, gangrene set in and Stokes finally died on 12 August 1828.
Replica of the memorial cross of Captain Pringle Stokes (x)
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